I have a young bd, 8 weeks old and he was being feed crickets but now seems scared of them so I feed him calci Worms, iv been giving him all types of greens but he won't eat any, I even put it on top of the calci Worms and he won't eat it, all vivarium temps are perfect he seems very happy.
Should I dust the calci Worms with the calcium and vitamin powder to make up for the vitamins he's missing from the greens and should I gut load the calci Worms on the greens as well because I was told calci Worms don't need gut loading,
Would this solution be OK untill he decides to start eating greens?
At his age , if all he wants is live insects , that's fine.
Your little dragon is very young , at 8 weeks old I regard it as a hatchling and as such , if it takes any grated veggies or green leafy salad stuff then you are very lucky.
Keep offering some each day so it's available for him to nibble on , and he's familiar with these as source of food .
This is bit of a guide you might find handy, there are a range of feeder insects that are very good for small hatchlings such shown here : viewtopic.php?f=18&t=242393
I don't dust my BSFL , but in the case of very young hatchling / juvenile who is growing very fast, it wont hurt to dust the lavae with vitamin powder as they are already rich in calcium , you don't need to dust them if you are including gutloaded insects like crickets, locusts or roaches, or if you are including silkworm in the daily diet.
Say one meal BSFL, one meal crickets, one meal silkworms each day.
If he's about 10" long , he's more likely 3 or 4 months old. But I'd say the same regarding feeding and dietary requirements (only larger size insects than a little thumb hugger sized hatchling).
Ordinarily I tell people never ever trust anything a petshop's know nothing sales-staff tell you.
I'm not familiar with that particular product , if it's a very fine powder ( ie fine like baby powder = ie a fine colloidal powder that's been precipated rather something that's been ground down to make a dust ) it should be OK. I've not read any bad reports about VetArk products.
Be careful if it's VitD3 fortified, especially if you are using a very high quality T5H0 10% or higher UVB tube.
How far away from the basking spot is the T5HO 12%UVB tube and reflector hood ?
The vitD3 is an issue but if the urates are nice and white indicating no surplus or calcium excretion in the urates as calcium oxalate nanocrystals the should not be an issue.
I'd just replace with a calcium powder that's not fortified with artificial vitD3 sooner than later.
The t5 is 12 to 15 inch from basking spot depending g on what part he's on and when he goes to the toilet there is white stuff as well if that's what you mean mate
The t5 is 12 to 15 inch from basking spot depending g on what part he's on and when he goes to the toilet there is white stuff as well if that's what you mean mate
12" is fine if the 12%UVB Arcadia T5HO tube is in a reflector hood , needs to be closer if it's just a bare tube.
The white stuff is the urates , if it's quite white or just a wee bit off white , it's fine , too much VitD3 given orally can result in ingested calcium in foods / on foods not being properly / completely metabolized (it's a "buffered" process so solubility rate limited by the concentration of Ca2+ and VitD3 in the bloodstream).
If the urates become orangy tinged (obviously) this indicates not all the dietary calcium is being metabolized to create more VitD3 in the presence of UVB in the dragon's skink, because their is too much VitD3 in the bloodstream already ===> Hypervitaminosis D3 … viewtopic.php?f=6&t=233592&p=1798248#p1798248
. not all vets will pick up on this , very easy to misdiagnose without bloodwork.